With official communications under tight state control, social media has been generously praised for getting out the dissidents’ messages, and it would be lovely if it amounted to something other than a quicker-than-usual view of the usual chaos and repression. Photo (cc) .faramarz.

Update: Our own Ward Harkavy points out that “glimmers of [Iranian] democracy are well and good, but if the oil giant emerges from the grip of the mullahs, it’s more likely to cast its lot with the East than the West.”